ChatGPT manufacturer OpenAI is looking to mesh its artificial intelligence systems into the bodies of humanoid robots with the robotics startup company Figure, according to Fortune.
PENRYN, ENGLAND - MAY 09: Engineered Arts RoboThespian robots are pictured at the company's headquarters in Penryn on May 9, 2018 in Cornwall, England. Founded in 2004, the Cornish company operating from an industrial unit near Falmouth, is a world leader in life sized commercial available humanoid robots for entertainment, information, education and research. The company has successfully sold its the fully interactive and multilingual RoboThespian robot and their smaller SociBot robot around the world to science centres, theme parks and visitor attractions, and also to academic and commercial research groups where they are used as research and development platforms.
Based in Sunnyvale, California, Figure announced the partnership this week with $675 million in venture capital funding from a group of investors that includes Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, as well as Nvidia, Microsoft, and the start divisions of Intel and OpenAI.
The company is only two years old, if that, and does not have any commercial products on the market but it has successfully persuaded the tech industry backers to support its vision of shipping billions of human-like robots to the world's workplaces and homes.
Figure is less than two years old and doesn't have a commercial product but is persuading influential tech industry backers to support its vision of shipping billions of human-like robots to the world's workplaces and homes.
"If we can just get humanoids to do work that humans do not want to do because there's a shortfall of humans, we can sell millions of humanoids, billions maybe," Figure CEO Brett Adcock told The Associated Press last year.
Robots Helping In Daily Life
OpenAI briefly experimented with robotics research before concentrating on the AI large language models behind ChatGPT. The partnership will "open up new possibilities for how robots can help in everyday life," said Peter Welinder, the San Francisco company's vice president of product and partnerships, in a written statement.
The terms of the deal between Figure and OpenAI have not been disclosed. However, the collaboration will have OpenAI building AI models that are specialized to work with Figure's humanoid robots and are likely based on existing technology.
According to Figure, this will help with an "accelerated" commercial timeline that will enable its robots to "process and reason from language."
In January, Figure announced an agreement with BMW to put its robots to work at a car plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. However, the companies have not determined how or when they will be used.
Intelligent humanoid robots have long been considered the Holy Grail of technological advancement. Most robots that are currently employed in manufacturing mimic portions of human and animal anatomy, but aren't truly humanoid.
It has taken engineers decades to develop robots that can walk on two legs or manipulate small objects. If successful, the venture between the two companies would represent a quantum leap forward both technologically and from a societal perspective as well.
